Daily Archives: March 29, 2016

Ida: Stuck in Frame

Film review

The critically acclaimed film, Ida, is not for the faint of heart. Ida is the melancholic journey of a young Catholic novice, Anna, who learns not only that she is Jewish, but that her deceased family’s burial site is unknown. The film interconnects the protagonist’s plight with the barrenness of communist Poland in 1962 as it tries to move on from its recent past. The plot of Ida is chilling; moreover the stark black and white picture in conjunction with the static frame cinematography enhances the emotional impact of the piece. Ida is not entertainment; it is a profound film that artistically communicates the heartache of Poland’s past.

Ida is not a date night film –unless you would rather make the date even more uncomfortable. This incredibly powerful piece uses cinematographic techniques that alienate the average viewer. The film requires immense viewer patience and trust in the film’s gradual development in order to understand the trajectory of the story. In addition to this slow pace, the absence of extra-diegetic sound abandons viewers to the images they create in their own minds. The silence forces the viewer to retreat, wondering what the characters are thinking. It is lifelike. It is uncomfortable. There is no cue or background guidance to advise the viewer on the trajectory of the plot, how to feel, or what is coming.

The film begins with a close up of Anna in the bottom of the frame painting the face of their convent’s statue of Jesus. Her dark eyes penetrate through the screen of only black and white; her eyes command the attention of the viewer whenever present on screen. Agata Trzebuchowska portrays Anna, a very quiet and introspective religious young woman. Her introversion is felt not only through her lack of dialogue, but also by the absence of extra-diegetic sound. The scenes filmed in the convent are incredibly realistic; the only sounds are from direct actions on the screen or dialogue. The static frame of the camera makes the viewer feel as though they are watching, standing still beside the characters, hoping to not be in the way. This, in conjunction with the high resolution of the picture, is an overwhelming experience.

The film does an excellent job of featuring two very different women, Anna and Wanda. On the journey to learn about herself, Anna meets her aunt, Wanda. The Catholic Anna learns of her Jewish birth name, Ida. Wanda is someone who has been through tremendous loss, and has finally become someone in Poland, a judge, but merely for show trials. Wanda provides comic relief, but also juxtaposes Ida’s purity. Ida is a puzzle, quiet and reserved, giving very few clues as to who she is other than the facts that the viewers already know about her family. Ida has lived a protected life, ignorant of her past, in the safety of the convent. Her piousness is contrasted with Wanda’s wantonness—knowledge and experience have led Wanda to live her life as she does. Wanda was known as “Red Wanda” as a communist prosecutor and previous to her career as a judge she sent several anti-communist sympathizers to their death. She is a strong woman and stops at nothing to get what she wants. Wanda takes the lead to uncover more about Ida and their lost family by asking questions, unveiling deeper twists within the plot. In fact Wanda even goes to a dying man’s bedside in order to find the location of her family’s graves. She obeys the law as she sees fit and follows her own code of conduct.

Agata Kuleszca beautifully portrays Wanda, who introduces Ida to a new lifestyle. When Wanda is on screen, the viewer is surprised to suddenly hear music, as she puts a record on. When Wanda is around, the viewer is more comfortable: she creates a sense of familiarity in the cold scenes of Poland as they drive to find their family. Wanda brings humor and warmth to the frame. She smokes, she dances, she drinks; Wanda does what Wanda wants, because she has already paid the ultimate sacrifice: the loss of her family and child. As Ida gets to know her once estranged aunt, Ida and the audience gradually learn of the underlying grief that eventually consumes Wanda. It is clear that this energetic woman is the motivating force behind the camera angles, music, and plot. Wanda’s presence propels the story forward. Wanda is a commanding force on the screen; the viewer is blindsided by her suicide. In that scene, Wanda puts on the record player, leaving the music on in the background, and jumps out of the window, out of the screen.

Ida’s character growth is facilitated by the static camera angles, allowing the viewer to compare earlier scenes that previously took place and see the change in Ida. One of the most uncharacteristic moments is where the novice nuns are eating toward the end of the film: the quiet Ida giggles to herself, presumably reacting to a funny thought, shattering the tension of silence. This is contrasted with the earlier scene where there is complete silence in the dining room, other than the sound of the nuns eating and scraping their spoons against their bowls. This comparison of parallel scenes underscores the distance now between Ida and the other nuns. The first time Ida visits Wanda’s apartment she is uncomfortable and very still. When Ida arrives to mourn and take care of her Aunt’s belongings, her body language has changed –she smokes a cigarette and listens to jazz. Ida has taken on the provocative behavior of Wanda, exaggerated by the static camera angle.

Wanda’s quick departure leaves the film without a center. After Wanda’s death, the camera focuses on Ida. This change in perspective delivers the resolution to the story, in which Ida takes control of her own life. The camera follows her as she makes her own destiny, taking with her all that she has learned. After her stay in Wanda’s apartment, living a single night of debauchery, Ida puts her symbolic habit back on and walks back to the convent.

The ending of the film is unsatisfying; Ida takes a beautiful journey to intertwine the lives of Wanda and Ida, these incredibly complex characters, only to have one die and the other return to her solitude. After all of the experimental film techniques that displace the viewers from their comfort, there is no resolution. Not unlike the unnecessary brutality of World War Two, the ending of Ida makes the film feel pointless.

 

Finding Family: Ida

Film review

It takes fewer than 82 minutes watching Pawel Pawlikowski’s 2013 film Ida to travel back in time to 1962 Soviet-era Poland. Although Pawlikowski’s film is set in a world different from that of today, one of its marvels is its accessibility. He opens up the film through the themes of family and identity, making Ida relatable and relevant to a 21st-century audience.

In the beginning of the film, Anna (Agata Trzebuchowska), a young nun about to take her vows, is told by her Mother Superior that she must first visit her only living relative. Anna, having been orphaned and raised at the convent, does not appear eager to meet her aunt and experience life outside the convent, perhaps thinking nothing will affect her decision to take her vows. Nonetheless, Anna ventures into the city.

When Anna meets her aunt, Wanda Gruz (Agata Kulesza), her world, as she knows it, shatters. She learns intricacies of her family history that, one would think, would fundamentally alter the course of her life. Her name is not actually Anna, but Ida Lebenstein. Somewhat less surprising after the first piece of news, Wanda tells her rather frankly, “You’re a Jew.” Wanda draws attention to Ida’s red hair as a marker of her origins, recognizing her at the door before she even enters the apartment. (That detail of this black-and-white film is lost on the viewer, as everything appears in grayscale.) What follows is Ida’s journey to reconcile her own history with that of her family in ways that surprise and please the viewer.

Wanda tries to convince Ida that in order to take her vows and mean them, she must first know what it is that she is sacrificing. Wanda’s lifestyle of drinking, smoking and one-night stands is a stark contrast to Ida’s life of discipline, sacrifice and religion. Their interactions with Lis (Dawid Ogrodnik), the hitchhiker that Wanda picks up further exemplify the contrast between the two women’s life philosophies. Wanda’s attempts to get Ida interested in Lis are met with resistance.

Contrasts and parallels between Ida and Wanda drive the film. Wanda is a judge, who as Red Wanda represented the Soviet law, displaying her strong will by sending fellow Poles to their death. Ida, on the other hand, leads her life according to faith and is at times rather demure. There are revealing moments when Wanda offers Ida a donut or a cigarette, Ida declines and Wanda proceeds to enjoy the sinful treat, further highlighting the contrast between the two women. Ida and Wanda set out to understand what happened to their family during the German occupation of World War II and find the bodies of their family. Once they find the house that once belonged to the Lebensteins, they encounter a Polish family who live there: Feliks Skiba and his wife and children. Wanda knows that Feliks is the key to finding out what happened, as he and his father were there. During interactions with Feliks and his father, the viewer sees the strength of Wanda’s character contrasted with Ida’s timidity.

In a chilling scene, Feliks takes Ida and Wanda into the woods and digs up bones that he says belonged to their family. He gives them the bones, allowing Wanda and Ida to take them to their family burial plot in an overgrown Jewish cemetery in Lublin. After the burial, it seems that the goal of their road adventure has been met and Ida and Wanda part ways. In attempts to return to normalcy, Ida tries to re-devote herself to life at the convent, while Wanda numbs herself with alcohol. Wanda, perhaps unable to cope with the death and burial of her son, or perhaps unsatisfied with her life, jumps out of her apartment window to her death. It is not until Wanda’s funeral that Ida encounters Lis again. In a scene in which Ida sheds her habit and dons Wanda’s dress and shoes, she tries smoking and drinking and goes to see Lis. Continuing her trial of Wanda’s former life, Ida sleeps with Lis. In bed, the two have a conversation about the future—after a series of “and then what’s” from Ida, Lis finally replies, “it’s life.” Ida, unsatisfied with that answer, perhaps bored by the idea of a dog and family and the life she would lead outside the convent, leaves Lis and does not turn back. She shows the same determination and strength of character in her decision, as Wanda would have, albeit their conclusions differed dramatically.

Ida and Wanda are both tested throughout their adventure and exploration into their family history. Their relationships to their faiths are perhaps the greatest difference between Ida and Wanda. For Ida, Catholicism reigns supreme—experiences in the outside world do not shake her devotion to the convent and her life there. In an interview, Pawlikowski described Ida as “psychologically and sociologically totally unusual—she’s a woman of God.” Her faith is inherently part of her personhood, unshakable. Wanda, on the other hand, who once held faith in the Soviet government, does not share Ida’s strength of devotion. Wanda’s faith twists throughout the film and by the end, she loses what little hold of it she had left and kills herself in a moment of internal struggle.

Through his characters, Pawlikowski successfully makes the Polish language accessible, to the point where at times the viewer forgets about the subtitles. Ida gives an inside look at post-German occupation Poland, showing the scars and healing along the way. While perhaps not ideal for a light-hearted movie night, Ida’s fresh exposition of the often-told story of the Jews during World War II from a new and engrossing angle is certainly worth a watch.